Protection of Copyright Under Sudanese Law

Abstract

Copyright, an intangible property of particular interest authors, has attracted less attention both from the Sudanese legislators and from the courts, despite the latter's quasi-legislative power decide cases not covered by existing lepslation according '4justice, equlty and good conscience'',l or principles of. . . justice . . . and good conscience.2 Bis relative lack of effort was understandable not least because publishing any sort of material in the Sudan has been, and still is, beset with technical and ecb nomic problems.3 Official consciousness for copyright protection started in the l950s and was mainly due the great interest which the Ministry of Education, as publisher of school books since 1946,, has come have in this subject. The underlpng philoso phy, culated by Attorney GenerS Mavrogordato, was twofold: comprehensiveness and confonnity with internaiional copyright law. It is desired, he advised, to have a comprehensive copyright law and one that will tie up with international conventions on the subject.4 Happily, this suggesiion has largely prevailed. The Copyri«t Proteciion Act 1974 finally completes the endeavours that had begun almost two decades earlier. This ariicle will analyse and evaluate tEs Act. The initial challenge is the delineation of the bases for proteciion; for there must always be a connection between the legislating state and the author or copyright material or both. Two steps in the creation of copyright will then be exned: the expression of ideas in tangible forrn or the subject matter, and the registration and deposit of copy of a work. These two features or consiituents of copyright are important given that they ought exist together